Cadence

The playbook thread got me thinking about cadence, and I'm unsure if I've asked this before or not---so forgive me if it is a repeat.

What is your QB's cadence? i.e. Do you have the QB call the play at the line? Do you ever mix up the snap count?

We pretty much go, "Down, set, hut!". I thought about changing the snap count before, but really unless a defender is on the line waiting to blitz immediately, there is no point.

We did roll out with a silent count last season a few times (I had my QB tap the Center who would snap the ball). It really did catch the defense off guard, but it took quite a bit of practice to get down, believe it or not. So much, I'm not sure how much time we will spend on it this season.

I found it funny when my son asked me last season, "Why did the QB on the other team say, 'Down, set, hike' instead of 'hut'"? :-)

We usually don't put much emphasis on the cadence. Found it was all we could do to get the play called while emphasizing key fakes or routes in the 30 seconds alloted. When we have messed around with the cadence, the defense never jumped probably b/c the line can't rush. Our offense would take off early causing a penalty flag though.

My QB's do color/number color/number set.....hut....... the set & hut are nice and hard

We usually don't put much emphasis on the cadence. Found it was all we could do to get the play called while emphasizing key fakes or routes in the 30 seconds alloted. When we have messed around with the cadence, the defense never jumped probably b/c the line can't rush. Our offense would take off early causing a penalty flag though.

My QB's do color/number color/number set.....hut....... the set & hut are nice and hard

Curious if the color and number mean anything in the cadence?

lol of course it means something!!!my teams always do things for a reason.

depends on the play.if i call a run play that can be run or pass the qb reads the defense then yells out a different color to indicate a play change...so if i call an end around run to the left but the defense is stacked to the left, the qb's cadence usually starts out like green 18 green 18 set...then he will yell black 58 black 58 which indicates change the play to a fake end around.

I've messed around with a silent snap and a few other things like that but it never really amounted to much. A season before our team joined I-9 I watched a playoff game and one team had defenders right over the center shouting so as to disrupt his snap count. Personally I would have demanded a penalty for unsportsmanlike conduct but they let them get away with it. At that point I began training my players for the silent snap but I never saw that happen again and I didn't see any advantage to it so we stopped.

I've thought about some trick plays using the snap count but never implemented them. Here is an example. Twins right, qb under center, halfback directly behind qb. Qb gets under center and begins down, set... He stops the count and trots towards the left sideline where the coach is at. The center does a silent shotgun snap to the halfback who then throws to the qb.

lol of course it means something!!!my teams always do things for a reason.

i forgot you have 12-14 y/o's. i think my kids could handle an audible, not sure.

I just like the fact is that we can audible out of it and the kids know exactly what it means...so if i call an end around run to the left but the defense is stacked to the left

i really haven't run across teams that give you different defensive looks, no stack lefts or rights. usually they run a 2.1.2 or 2.3 or 1.1.3 and rarely switch from those looks. if i could think of a practical reason to run an audible, i'd consider it.

lol of course it means something!!!my teams always do things for a reason.

i forgot you have 12-14 y/o's. i think my kids could handle an audible, not sure.

I just like the fact is that we can audible out of it and the kids know exactly what it means...so if i call an end around run to the left but the defense is stacked to the left

i really haven't run across teams that give you different defensive looks, no stack lefts or rights. usually they run a 2.1.2 or 2.3 or 1.1.3 and rarely switch from those looks. if i could think of a practical reason to run an audible, i'd consider it.

well i coach 11-13 this season...even when i did 9-10 this worked awesome...

well say we are stacked trips right...and we are running an end round left.the front zone guy in a 2-3 or 2-1-2 is going to be right there...so if the QB doesnt catch it i will yell a color out and the QB's name...instantly they always know what to do.

basically if we were to do the end around it would probably get shut down quick.so instead of taking the 1-5 yards we just audible out of it and go with a pass.

i really haven't run across teams that give you different defensive looks, no stack lefts or rights. usually they run a 2.1.2 or 2.3 or 1.1.3 and rarely switch from those looks. if i could think of a practical reason to run an audible, i'd consider it.

Yea, we pretty much get the same looks too, but the defensive players might switch positions. If I know their best defender is lined up right and the play is going to the right, I'll audible to something left. One of the things I'm learning to work on is pay closer attention to the defensive *players* and which ones are causing the most havoc.

Interesting about the audible. Biggest challenge for me is calling the play in the huddle and making sure the kids understand it along with spreading the ball touches. With 30 seconds to call the play, throwing an audible in there would be a challenge. Curious how many and how long your practices are? We practice one hour before the game, once per week.

Interesting about the audible. Biggest challenge for me is calling the play in the huddle and making sure the kids understand it along with spreading the ball touches. With 30 seconds to call the play, throwing an audible in there would be a challenge. Curious how many and how long your practices are? We practice one hour before the game, once per week.

We practice twice a week for about 1 hour each practice...

I did this with a team that practiced 1 time a week.it really only took 5 mins or so to put in.just because you can do it by yelling in the color yourself and teaching the QB to keep the ball.

Interesting about the audible. Biggest challenge for me is calling the play in the huddle and making sure the kids understand it along with spreading the ball touches. With 30 seconds to call the play, throwing an audible in there would be a challenge. Curious how many and how long your practices are? We practice one hour before the game, once per week.

We practice twice a week for about 1 hour each practice...

I did this with a team that practiced 1 time a week.it really only took 5 mins or so to put in.just because you can do it by yelling in the color yourself and teaching the QB to keep the ball.

I am very interested in your audible idea, but I'd like to get some more info on how you do your play calling.

When you send your QB to the line does he say the same color/number for all plays, and only changes it for the audibles, or do you have different colors/numbers for every single play? Also do you have several audibles or just one? What do the colors represent (the formation?), and are the numbers routes from the passing tree or something else?